Avoid Trouble With This Plug-In

We’re not usually ones to slather every anti-spam/spyware utility with praise. There are too many options that do pretty much the same job and all are affordable. However, this one’s too good not to mention, since it’s so unique and can save headaches on both business and home computers. We’re talking about SiteAdvisor (www.siteadvisor.com). SiteAdvisor sends out its agents (or bots) to browse Web sites, while checking for unwanted downloads. It even signs up for any e-mail newsletters available on sites and monitors their frequency/contents for spam-like attributes.

When downloading SiteAdvisor as a plug-in for a computer, you see its magic on the SERPs of Google, Yahoo! and MSN, as it adds red, yellow or green badges next to each listing for sites its bots have visited. Sites that are bad news—ones that force spyware downloads to a system, spam your brains out or abuse a computer in some other way—are marked with the red icon. Sites that aren’t dangerous, but are suspect are marked with yellow. Green means everything checks out and the site is safe.

SiteAdvisor works for both IE and FireFox browsers. If you’ve ever suffered the “less-than-dial-up” speed of a computer loaded down with adware, lost data or found spyware infecting your computer like a pandemic, SiteAdvisor may be just the thing to keep your computer clean and save you headaches later. It can help avoid trouble spots before they do their damage.